Foot instep support



Aug 29, 1933. A. H. KAY

FOOT INSTEP SUPPORT Filed Feb. 4, 1932 Patented Aug. 29, 1933 UNITED STATES FOOT INSTEP SUPPORT Alfred Homer Kay, Alderley Edge, near Manchester, England Application February 4, 1932, Serial No. 590,840, and in Great Britain April 29, 1931 4 Claims. (01. 36'71) This invention refers to foot instep supports, of the kind made of a hard mouldable material, and also made with a cross-bar below the highest arched portion of the support.

Heretofore, such cross-bar has been of the same hard material as and integral with the support proper, and has interfered somewhat with the springiness of the support, and has not been adapted to allow of variations to suit requirements.

According to this invention, the cross-bar is made separate from the support, and is detachably connected thereto so as to be interchangeable with cross-bars of different degrees of hardness, and also of different sizes (depth or width) or both. The support is preferably thickened at its highest part to produce an upstanding face on the underside of the arch, to which face the crossbar is secured by means of screws passing into the thickened part, or an undercut tongue and groove formation between the cross-bar and the thickened part, or by means of an adhesive. The cross-bar may be of comparatively soft rubber to make the support resilient, and may have an intermoulded metal plate against which the heads of the securing screws may bear.

Upon the accompanying drawing which illustrates a foot instep support for a right foot;

Fig. l is an elevation of one form of the invention, and showing the inner side of the support.

Fig. 2 is a plan and Fig. 3 is an elevation (projected from Fig. 2) showing the outer side of the same support.

Fig. 4 illustrates the section of the support shown in Fig. 2 at line 4-4.

Fig. 5 is a like view to Fig. 4, showing a modification.

Fig. 6 is an elevation of the central part of a support showing a further modification, and

Fig. 7 is an inverted plan of a modified form of the detachable cross-bar.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 4, the support proper comprises a plate a made of vulcanite, or of the material known by the trade mark name Bakelite, or of like mouldable material. At the part where the cross-bar 12 requires to be fitted, the support a is thickened, the thickened part being formed with a flat face suitable for the cross-bar to bed against. By means of screws c 50 passing into such thickened part, the cross-bar is secured to the instep support, its ends lying fiush with or slightly within the edges of the support, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4. Reinforcing fillets d may be provided, as shown, in the arched 55 part of the support.

Where only one screw 0 is used, its head may be intermoulded with the cross-bar, or, in all cases, a thin plate e may be inter-moulded with the cross-bar, and the screw stems pass through 6 holes in such bar, while the screw heads bear against the plate when fixing the cross-bar to the instep support, see Fig. 5.

Instead of being fixed by screws, the cross-bar may be secured by an undercut tongue and groove or dovetail formation between itself and the thickened part of the plate. Such formation is shown in Fig. 6, where the cross-bar b is formed with a dovetail rib 12 adapted slidably to engage a dovetail groove in the thickened part of the support.

Usually the cross-bar will be rectangular in cross section but it might be of semi-circular, or of other appropriate cross section.

By making the cross-bar detachable, a new one can be readily fitted to suit particular requirements. In some cases, and as illustrated in Fig. 7, the soft rubber cross-bar may have bar-like parts 1, extending from one or both of its sides, the thickened part of the instep support having like parts, and the cross-bar, as a whole, being fitted thereto by screws, as shown, or by an adhesive.

The cross-bar may be of the same hard mouldable material as the support proper, but it is preferably made of soft rubber or other suitable yielding material such as cork.

If desired, perforations may be made in the plate a for ventilation purposes, one arrangement being shown in Fig. 2.

What I claim is:

1. A foot instep support made from hard mouldable material of the vulcanite class with a cross-bar below its highest arched portion, characterized by an upstanding facing formed below the support, to which facing the cross-bar is detachably and interchangeably connected, the cross-bar having a tread surface lying in the plane of the tread surface of the support, as set forth.

2. A foot instep support made of vulcanite, thickened at its highest part to produce an upstanding face on the underside of the arch, and a separate interchangeable cross-bar secured against such face by means of screws passing into the said thickened part of the support, as set forth.

3. A foot instep support made of vulcanite, thickened at its highest part to produce an upstanding face on the underside of the arch, and a separate interchangeable cross-bar secured against such face by means of an undercut tongue and groove formation between itself and the said thickened part of the support, as set forth.

4. A foot instep support as claimed in claim 1, characterized by a soft rubber cross-bar and an intermoulded metal plate in the cross-bar, against which the heads of screws screwing into the body of the support may bear, as set-forth.

ALFRED HORNER KAY. 

